1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording head, an ink tank and a recording head cartridge capable of being loaded into a recording apparatus, such as a printer, a facsimile apparatus or a copying machine, and a recording apparatus having the recording head, the ink tank and the recording head cartridge, and more particularly, to a recording head having a device including or capable of including information on recording conditions, an ink tank, a recording head cartridge, and a recording apparatus loaded with the recording head, the ink tank and the recording head cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ink jet recording method which records by jetting droplets of ink (recording liquid) onto a recording medium, such as paper, has attracted attention and been put into active development and study because it creates virtually no noise while recording and it can record on plain paper at high speed without any special processing such as fixing.
A recording head applicable to such an ink jet recording apparatus is generally provided with a fine liquid jetting outlet (orifice), a liquid path connected to the liquid jetting outlet, an energy acting portion disposed in the liquid path, and a droplet energy generating portion for making liquid in the energy acting portion act.
The energy is generated by, for example, using an electromechanical converter, such as a piezo-electric device, or radiating an electromagnetic wave like a laser beam onto the liquid and jetting droplets of the liquid by a heating action of the laser beam. In particular, an ink jet recording head having an electricity-heat converter as an energy generating means can achieve high-resolution recording since liquid jetting outlets (orifices) for jetting recording droplets to form flying droplets can be arranged densely in such a head. Furthermore, the recent application of IC (semiconductor) technology and micro manufacturing technology have made it possible to provide an ink jet recording head having multiple nozzles, arranged at high density which is capable of being mass-produced, and advantageous in productivity and cost.
Recently, using an ink jet recording head cartridge freely detachable from a recording apparatus, and a plurality of recording head cartridges of different colors for color printing has been suggested.
In the case of an ink jet recording head cartridge detachable from a recording apparatus, characteristics, such as loading conditions of the recording head cartridge into the apparatus, colors and density of ink used in the recording head cartridge, driving conditions of the recording head cartridge and the amount of residual ink, differ with the recording head cartridge (also the ink tank and the head), and it is necessary to change a recording operation in accordance with the characteristics.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,898 discloses a recording head cartridge having a memory device for storing information on such characteristics.
The ink jet recording head having a memory device is produced in, for example, the following processes.
FIG. 12 is an explanatory view showing the production procedures of a substrate in an ink jet recording head according to the related art.
First, a base plate 111 (a first substrate) made of glass, ceramics, plastic or metal is washed (FIG. 12(a)). Then, as shown in FIG. 12(b), a heater board 112 (a second substrate) on which an ink jet pressure generating device (an ink jet energy generating device for generating energy to be used to form ink droplets), such as a heating element serving as an electricity-heat converter or a piezo-electric device serving as an electromechanical converter, is formed is joined to a predetermined position on the base plate 111 with a UV curing adhesive or the like. After that, a printed circuit board 115 (a third substrate) for electrically connecting the ink jet pressure generating device and the body of a printer is joined onto the base plate 111. Finally, a semiconductor chip 128 (ROM) serving as a memory device for storing, for example, data on the above characteristics is soldered to the side of the printed circuit board 115 opposite to the side connected to the base plate 111 (FIG. 12(d)). The above production processes of a recording head are generally carried out on an automated line represented schematically in FIG. 12(e).
However, according to the construction disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,898, a ROM serving as a memory device is affixed to a housing of an ink jet head cartridge. Such construction has the following problems.
If information stored in the memory device is wrong, the operation of a recording apparatus and the driving state of a recording head are hindered and an image is damaged. In an extreme case, recording will be impossible. When such a delicate memory device thus affixed to the housing of the recording head cartridge is exposed, it can be damaged by direct impact when being transported, from being touched by a user, and so on, when the recording head cartridge is detached from the recording apparatus.
Furthermore, since the ink jet head cartridge contains liquid ink, leakage of the ink in transportation and scattering of the ink in recording may hinder proper operation of the memory device and its peripheral circuits.
On the other hand, there are the following problems in the production of the ink jet head.
When the recording head substrate is produced as shown in FIG. 12, and the semiconductor chip 128 serving as a memory device is soldered after the base plate 111 and the printed circuit board 115 are joined as shown in FIG. 12(d), the semiconductor chip 128 projects from the printed circuit board 115. Therefore, for example, it is difficult to horizontally pile such recording head substrates in a storage device like a magazine in the production process. As a result, the construction required to supply the substrates in an automatic assembly process is complicated. In addition, the projecting semiconductor chip may be caught in the production process, damaged and break down.
When another semiconductor chip is soldered onto the printed circuit board 115, since the heater board 112 is already affixed onto the base plate 111, refuse material arising from the soldering of the semiconductor chip may damage the heater board 112 and block the jetting outlets. Furthermore, the refuse material may move to the ink jet pressure generating device, an electrode and a transistor formed on the heater board 112 after the soldering and cause the leakage of current from the semiconductor, and the refuse material remaining in a liquid path, a liquid chamber and an orifice may make ink jetting unstable or impossible.
In order to prevent the soldering refuse material from soiling the heater board 112, it is necessary to wash the semiconductor chip 128 after soldering. However, since the semiconductor chip 128 and the heater board 112 have been already coupled with each other at the time of soldering, such washing is difficult.